PBA: Asian Games break not a factor in loss, says Rain or Shine's Caloy Garcia

PBA

PBA: Asian Games break not a factor in loss, says Rain or Shine's Caloy Garcia

Santino Honasan on Sep 26, 2018 10:54 PM

"We just have to find ways to win."

Two games into the 2018 PBA Governor's Cup, the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters find themselves 0-2 in their first two games after a 92-76 loss to the Magnolia Hotshots, Wednesday evening at the Araneta Coliseum.

While all the other teams in the league already found their groove with at least four games each, the Elasto Painters had an extended break that carried over until after the Asian Games, with six of their players being called up to represent the Philippines in the month-long Asian tournament.

The ElastoPainters made their debut last Sunday with a loss to Talk N' Text.

While it would be easy to say that the Asian Games could be a reason for Rain or Shine's rocky start, head coach Caloy Garcia doesn't see it that way.

"Wala," Garcia replied when asked if there was an Asian Games hangover of sorts, "Like I said, after the Talk N’ Text game, I feel that we played well against Talk N’ Text despite the loss."

Garcia continued by saying that this was a very different team that challenged the KaTropa.

"But in today’s game, it’s a totally different team, hindi ganun ang laro namin, even in practice, I think our preparation was good, but I think we just have to learn how to play against the pressure ng defense ng kalaban because we couldn’t excute anything today. [Magnolia] did a good job. They did the better job on defense."

"We just have to find ways to win." he added.

In fact, Garcia stands by the belief that his six Asiad representatives should even be stepping up more, given the fact that they saw action against some of the best basketball squads in Asia.

"Dapat nga pagbalik nila galing Asian Games, they should be performing better, better than how they’re playing right now."

Looking forward, Garcia relishes the fact they they'll be having a free day on Friday to be able to fine tune the things that need to be addressed in practice.

The next assignment for Rain or Shine will be against Alaska, and Garcia knows that they'll be in for another tough night.

"It’s good that we don’t have a game on Friday, at least we have more time prepare, especially since we play against Alaska," he explained, "and we know that Alaska will pressure us the same way that Magnolia pressured us today. I think we just have to prepare for that."

The rest of the season doesn't get any easier for Garcia and the ElastoPainters, but Garcia maintains that all they need to do is focusing on what they need to do to get the win.

"Okay lang ‘yun. Makakalaban mo din sila sooner or later so, I think it’s just about us coming into the game and focusing ourselves on what we have to do to win."